Sean Lee's impact on Cowboys organization is thing of legends

Sean Lee's impact on Cowboys organization is thing of legends

There’s probably no player in the NFL who is as unique — or arguably as valuable — as Sean Lee. That might be refuted by those who aren’t fond of the Dallas Cowboys or those who point to his injury proneness, but we now have new insight that lays all those arguments to rest. The third season of Amazon’s “All or Nothing” series provides a perspective of Lee that simply was not possible before, at least for those outside the Cowboys’ organization.

Sean Lee is the Real MVP

Watching Lee play makes it easy to see why he’s a captain, leader and coach on the field for the Cowboys. But seeing him behind the scenes in “All or Nothing” takes that appreciation to a whole new level. The production portrays him to be more of a coach for his unit than even then-linebackers coach Matt Ebeflus. We even see Lee in a full defense setting leading the film study and game plan review prior to Sundays.

To say Lee knows his stuff is an understatement. To see it is something else entirely.

During the Cowboys’ second contest against the Giants, Lee and company faced a second-and-goal from the one-yard line when Eli Manning connected with Rhett Ellison for an easy touchdown in the flats. On the sideline after the play, Lee asks then-secondary coach Joe Baker who is responsible for the seam route down the middle on the weak side. Baker’s response is hesitant and fundamentally wrong, and Lee proceeds to explain that to him:

Why is Sean Lee so important to Dallas? Here’s the in-game conversation between Lee & Joe Baker (was let go by Dallas this offseason) after NYG scored a TD to go up 10-3. Cowboys coaches called a defense that was physically impossible to execute, and Lee had to tell him so. pic.twitter.com/QcfA6vqXo8

This has been commonly shared since it aired with many using it as an opportunity to jab the coaching staff’s inability to do their job. Lee’s brilliance is by far the bigger story.

The route Lee questions is on the weak side of the formation, and the opposite side of the field to where Ellison was lined up and the touchdown was scored. He was more concerned about the future of his defense in similar situations than Xavier Woods’ failure to properly cover Ellison off the line on that pigtail out route.

But the exclamation point came at the end of “All or Nothing.” After all the mesmerizing instances of Lee being Lee throughout the series, we see a moment that is almost tear-jerking from a perspective of dedication. When the Cowboys players are dismissed after their final team meeting at the end of the season, we watch them file out of the meeting room and subsequently out of The Star in Frisco to the offseason. All except one.

The camera then pans back and follows Lee, who turns down the hallway away from the exit, directly back into the linebackers’ film room and turns on tape of the Cowboys’ meaningless Week 17 victory over the eventual Super Bowl champion Eagles. And that’s how the series ends.

In short, the Cowboys are not worthy of Lee’s presence on the roster or within the organization at all. And if we’re being honest, no NFL team is.

This is one of several focused reviews of the Amazon documentary “All or Nothing”.